1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a turntable for the treatment of containers for fillable goods with receiving places for the containers and with at least one treatment unit for the containers received in the receiving places.
2. Description of Related Art
The generic turntables for the treatment of containers for fillable goods are known in a plurality of embodiments, adapted to the different containers shapes and different goods that can be filled therein. Containers worth mentioning, for example, are glass or polyethylene bottles, cans, etc. Goods that can be filled in these containers are understood as being the following, for example: beverages, fluid or thick-flowing personal hygiene products, foodstuffs, animal food as well as pourable goods, such as rice, for example.
Turntables are usually used when it is necessary to fill, to screw closed, to seal or perform similar treatments with containers with high frequency. These high frequencies are enabled in such a way that the containers, following their receipt in the receiving places, are available for the treatment by the treatment units assigned to the receiving places for an approximate period of time which passes during a complete rotation of the turntable. All containers disposed in the receiving places on a turntable are continuously subjected to the treatment, e.g., the screwing on of a lid, thus achieving a high frequency, on the one hand, and securing a continuous treatment, on the other hand.
In order to continuously supply the known turntables with containers, so-called accumulating conveyors are usually used, at the outlet of which the containers are singled out via a feed screw in order to be supplied to a feed star which supplies the containers to the turntable at a delivery point, which is also partly known as a turning star. Partly, the containers are taken from the receiving places by means of an outlet star in the outlet section or are supplied directly to a conveyer.
The known turntables for the treatment of containers for fillable goods are merely provided with one treatment unit which usually treats in parallel a number of containers in the receiving places. For example, the containers are filled in a filling star by a filling unit. As a rule, however, a number of working steps, such as the cleaning, filling, screwing on of returnable bottles are necessary for the complete treatment of containers for fillable goods in order to produce the final product. In the known installations for the treatment of containers, a plurality of turntables are used which are specialized in the respective treatment, such as the filling, for example, and which deliver the containers partly via feed stars and/or outlet stars to interposed conveyors, or which receive from the same.
The problematic aspect in installations composed of the conventional turntables which allow treatment of containers is that they require a relatively high amount of floor space due to the plurality of the required turnstiles and feed and outlet stars. Moreover, every receipt or delivery of the containers to and from a turntable leads to a relatively high mechanical effort, thus causing additional wear and tear and additional susceptibility to malfunctions.